By Stir
As I’m with the Bears, a collection of short stories from a damaged planet, is published, I interviewed Wu Ming 1 about his contribution, climate activism, the occupy movement and the mystery why writers on the left still do not publish under copyleft or creative commons.
Stir: In Bill McKibben’s introduction to I’m with the Bears he says that “science can only go so far…it is the role of artists to make us feel”. This expresses … Read entire article »

By Perry Anderson
Within the huge multiverse of prose fiction the historical novel has, almost by definition, been the most consistently political. It is no surprise that it should have occasioned what is still probably the best-known of all works of Marxist literary theory, Lukács’s The Historical Novel, written in Russian exile in the 1930s. Any reflection on the strange career of this form has to begin there, however far it may then wander from him. Built around … Read entire article »

By Lupe Fiasco
The Times…
Stepping out into the square the first thing noticed is the emptiness. Odd because the square is crawling with people. It is at maximum capacity. It is full. The emptiness is not the lack of objects but the lack of substance. The lack of purpose. Odd again because the square is full of things to do. It is bustling with all forms of entertainment and engagement. It is full of purpose. The dual … Read entire article »

By Tracy Daugherty
Source: Vanity Fare
The tragicomic 1961 novel that sprang from Joseph Heller’s experience as a W.W. II bombardier mystified and offended many of the publishing professionals who saw it first. But thanks to a fledgling agent, Candida Donadio, and a young editor, Robert Gottlieb, it would eventually be recognized as one of the greatest anti-war books ever written. In an adaptation from his Heller biography, Tracy Daugherty recalls the tortured eight-year genesis of Catch-22 and its … Read entire article »

By John Berger:
The best way to understand the world, writes Berger, is not as a metaphorical prison but a literal one. And what better way to inspire solidarity than seeing ourselves (them) as fellow prisoners?
The wonderful American poet Adrienne Rich pointed out in a recent lecture about poetry that “this year, a report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics finds that one out of every 136 residents of the United States is behind bars—many in … Read entire article »

Significations & Social Imaginary in the 21st Century

At any moment each of us are surrounded by an infinite array of unique possibilities and events that, when taken together as a whole, appear to form a cohesive world view about society and our role within it. Whether high-and-mighty or low-and-lowly, a myriad of surreptitious relations shape our precarious existence in the 21st Century. Relations such as class rule, racism, sexism, and authoritarianism manifest themselves in old and new ways.

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. These are, revolutionary times...

Worsening social and material conditions, economic decay, mass uprisings across Mideast, North African, and European countries, the undeniable power of new technologies such as WikiLeaks, Facebook, Twitter, and other online and mobile media (for better or worse), the threat of ecological disaster, and the social transformations unfolding in Latin America -- all combine to make this century dramatically different from the last. These are today's activated revolutionary forces that will shape our future -- and be shaped by us -- whether we are conscious of it or not. The timeless goal of a society organized around autonomy, classlessness, self-management, mutual-aid, solidarity, and diversity is yet to be realized once and for all.

Our task is to imagine those structures and relations that can deliver these desired outcomes, drawing from past and present examples, and offer a new world view outlining what is possible -- to figure out how to self-consciously move from today's world into the instauration (or original creation) of an autonomous project for a participatory society that transforms all spheres of life.

This website will use media, (pop and non-pop) culture, commentary, art, analysis, theory, criticism, entertainment, and current events to explore this purpose. Content will be published daily and weekly, up to the minute and, with modern technologies, up to the moment.